Super Mario Anniversary!

Nintendo Japan sent out an update today to Club Nintendo members revealing its plans for the 20th anniversary of Super Mario Brothers. That's right, IGN's top game in its previous top 100 games of all time feature saw release for the Japanese Famicom on September 13, 2005, and to celebrate the occasion, Nintendo will be releasing some hot new products around that time.

First up comes the release of three exciting Game Boy Advance titles. September 13 will see the release of Mario Tennis Advance, a portable version of Mario Tennis developed by Camelot that's said to feature heavy RPG elements. Nintendo will also release Doctor Mario & Puzzle de Pon for the Game Boy Advance, a game combining the classic puzzler Doctor Mario with the classic puzzler Puzzle de Pon, all at a budget price of 2000 yen.

The third title is a re-release, but one that we're sure Nintendo's been getting lots of e-mails about. The first Famicom Mini (NES Classics) game is the hardest entry in the series of 30 titles to find these days, despite also being the best selling of the lot. Good news for those who missed out -- Nintendo will be re-releasing the game on September 13th in celebration of Mario's big anniversary. Nintendo hasn't revealed if the game will keep its original packaging.

In addition to these three titles, IGN has heard a few less official reports of even bigger plans from the big N on September 13th. Apparently, although not officially confirmed yet, Nintendo plans on releasing the Japanese version of its miniature Game Boy Advance, the Game Boy Advance Micro, on that day. We've also heard some buzz that the new DS Super Mario Brothers title, which is being developed in part by staff members that worked on the classic 2D Super Mario games, is nearing completion and could be released shortly following the anniversary.

Even without these last two, September 13th should be a special day thanks to the three titles Nintendo confirmed today. The US anniversary of Super Mario Bros. is in October of this year, so let's hope Nintendo of America has similar plans for us.